Re: Multiple Wives
I once took an Islamic theology class at the university level and I had some friends who had taken similar classes. There is a theory on polygamy that we studied, which was that polygamy is meant strictly for men who are taking in orphans and widows as their wives. In other words, lets say your first wife is someone from a decent affluent family or whatever. Then earthquake hits Pakistan and there are so many orphans, etc and people are dying of hunger and the cold, and so you take someone into your household as a second wife. That’s Islamically permissable, and unfortunately RARELY practiced.
Here is an article that explains the logic and the Quranic tafseer on why it is thought the polygamy verse relates only to orphans and widows, or just women who don’t have any male to financially take care of them, and they can’t sustain themselves.
It also has reference to the bibi Fatima incident that I’m talking about. Please read through the whole thing if you’re seriously interested in the topic. Ali (R) was prohibited twice from taking on a second wife.
Piece this together with the Prophet’s own marriages, of which the only non-widow, non-orphan wife that the Prophet took was Bibi Aisha (R), that should help out.
And don’t ever forget to take the ayah that strictly prohibits you from marrying based on lust into account as well.